Directory_and_Chronicle_1932 — Page 555

LUNGCHINGTSUN-HUNCHUN

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forsook their holdings and either returned to Korea or moved into the larger villages and trade marts for safety. The latter part of the year saw more peaceful conditions, due, it is said, to the arrest by the Japanese authorities of the ringleaders of the Communist and Independence movement. In spite of these conditions, imports during the year were comparatively large, but the trade was chiefly of a speculative nature, due to cheap prices for cotton manufactures in Japan and the expectation of an increase in the local pur- chasing power as a result of good crops. The low price ruling abroad for beans depressed the local market, and the few transactions which took place were largely due to forced sales and the producers' need for ready money. In many cases beans were transported to the frontier by road rather than pay railway freights which would have swallowed up any possible profit. The year was free from abnormal rains and consequent flood. These floods are an ever- recurring danger during the summer months. Some 30 years ago this country was well wooded, but the denudation of it by immigrant Koreans, who cut as they came, has never been repaired. The result is that the country is slowly but surely developing into desert, and, unless this problem is seriously tackled, the lack of trees and the ravages of the north-west gales will, in a few decades, render even those fertile valleys where crops can still be grown a barren wilderness.

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The value of the trade coming under the cognisance of the Customs in 1930 was Hk. Tls. 5,698,579, as compared with Hk. Tls. 7,178,888 in 1929, Hk. Tls. 8,106,729 in 1928, Hk. Tls. 9,420,810 in 1927, Hk. Tls. 7,169,289 in 1926 and Hk Tls. 3,933,790 in 1925 Telephone and telegraph lines, in addition to the Chinese telegraph and telephone lines, connect Lungchingtsun with the neigh- 'bouring marts of Yenki, Towtaokow and Hunchun. A handsome new building for the Bank of Chosen was completed in 1923, and a particularly fine new Japanese Consulate-General in 1925.

BANK OF CHOSEN

S, Shiozawa

T. Itoh

CHINESE MARITIME CUSTOMS

DIRECTORY

Acting Commissioner-A. G. Wallas

(and at Hunchun)

Assistants-C. Ogiwara and Chung

Ping Cheng

Chief Examiner-T. Morita

Tidewaiters-Yun Kiang Hua, Lin

Yi Deh, Kao Yuan Che, Jen Kwang Tou and Lui Pao Ch'i

Local Watcher--Kim Shih Yeli

JAPANESE CONSULATE-GENERAL

Consul-General-K. Okada Consul--J. Higashi

Vice-Consul-S. Takiyama

Chancellors-Y. Idzichi, H. Yoneda, G. Hamada, K. Fujita, Y. Takahashi, K. Yuge and N. Hayashi

Police Supt.-K. Aiba

HUNCHUN

春琿

Hunchun is derived from Manchu, meaning frontier, and is situated in lat. 24 deg. 25 min. 5 sec. N., long. 130 deg. 22 min. 10 sec. E. of Greenwich, on the right bank of the Hung Ch'i Ho, some 35 li from the Chino-Russian frontier and about 90 li distant from Novokiewsk. In 1714 a detachment of soldiers came here from Ninguta, and this may be regarded as the beginning of Hunchun, which was to be opened to trade, by treaty with Japan (Manchurian Convention), in 1905, but the Customs staff did not arrive before December, 1909. Towards the end of 1921 an electric light plant was installed in the

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